Indonesia to end ‘bank secrecy’ in 2017

Posted On: November 15, 2015

Indonesia is set to end its “bank secrecy” policy in September 2017, allowing the country to exchange tax information with other countries, which would be a major step in the fight against tax evasion and financial fraud.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that Indonesia would be an early adopter of the global initiative. Fifty-one countries have signed up to the multilateral competent authority agreement, under which respective tax authorities will exchange information automatically from September 2017.

“Automatic exchange of information will be effective in 2018 globally, but some countries, including Indonesia, will adopt it earlier, in September 2017,”Bambang told Kompas.com in Jakarta on Friday.

However, he added that some laws would have to be amended before the bank secrecy principle could be abolished permanently.

The Automatic Exchange of Information and Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) agreement is one of the points that Indonesia will raise at the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Sunday and Monday.

“Under the automatic exchange of information in 2017, we don’t have to take a bilateral approach [in accessing other countries’ tax information]; rather, it is automatic,” Bambang said. (anh/ags)